CLAYTON — A couple has sued a local bar’s former owners, claiming the business served a patron nine drinks in one visit, just before he crashed into their car, paralyzing her and seriously injuring him.
Jennifer and Sean Bradshaw’s lawsuit says the Caddyshack Saloon, on Oldenburg Avenue in south St. Louis County, overserved Louis Cooke, which led to the crash.
Richard and Robert Kuelker, who owned the bar at the time, were named as defendants in Thursday’s suit along with their company RRK Enterprises, which did business as the Caddyshack Saloon. Robert Kuelker declined to comment when reached by phone.
The suit says Cooke was at the bar one day in May 2021. He left the bar “visibly intoxicated” and drove off, the suit says. He was driving 100 mph in a 35 mph zone when he crashed into the back of the Bradshaws’ stopped car, which was waiting to make a left turn.
Their car was propelled into a utility pole, the suit says.
Jennifer Bradshaw suffered permanent paralysis from the neck down, the suit says; doctors say she will never walk again.
Sean Bradshaw suffered serious injuries to his leg.
Their lawsuit asks for damages in excess of $25,000.
Cooke, now 44, of Brentwood, was charged with DWI resulting in serious injury and operating a motor vehicle in a careless manner.
He pleaded guilty in February 2023, court records say, and was sentenced to four years in prison.
That sentence was to run concurrently with a 33-month federal sentence stemming from a 2010 child sex trafficking case.
Online prison records say Cooke was released on parole in April.
Court records say the Bradshaws lived in the South County village of Marlborough.
The bar’s Facebook page said the business came under new ownership in 2022.
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Dana Rieck | Post-Dispatch
Courts Reporter
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